Are you satisfied?
by Those sadistic tendencies
Summary: Prince Arthur, the knights and Merlin are out hunting outlaws when they are separated from the group and Arthur is held to ransom. But what will happen when Uther pays Arthur s bounty but not Merlin's? Warning! Merlin whump - lots of it. GirlMerlin. Rape and Merthur sex scenes.
1. Bumpy ride

**Bumpy ride**

Merlin opened her eyes to the sort of day that she dreamed about. It was one of those golden shimmering sunlight and bright blue sky days. She grinned and flipped up from her bed - it was her eighteenth birthday, she felt that she was allowed to be happy today.

The young witch's eyes flashed amber-gold and her boots came flying across the room to her - promptly smacking her in the face. Her grin faltered for only a second before she pulled on the offending items and got dressed in her usual baggy red shirt, breeches and blue neckerchief.

"Morning Gaius!" she smiled at her mentor as he looked up from the potion he was mixing, surprised at her good mood - Merlin wasn't usually a morning person by any standards.

"Good morning, and a happy birthday, Merlin, you'd better hurry, Arthur was looking for you." he told her, as she grabbed a half eaten bread roll from the night before, she rolled her sapphire eyes at him.

"When _isn't _he looking for me?" Gaius chuckled slightly at that. Merlin closed the door behind her, munching on the roll as she jogged her way up to Arthur's chambers.

She bumped the door open with her hip, having taken the prince's breakfast from a startled looking servant on her way from the kitchens. "Rise and shine!" she called, bustling over to the table, only to freeze when she saw that Arthur was already up and dressed, in full battle gear of all things.

"You're late, Merlin." the prince said as he fastened his sword to the belt at his hip, he was wearing his chain mail and looked uncomfortable doing so - the day was already unseasonably hot.

"What's going on?" she asked, her smile slipping a tiny bit - Arthur awake before midday without her "help" was always a bad sign. If you could call pulling him bodily out of the bed help that is.

"A group of marauders has been ambushing all trading caravans on the road to Camelot." Arthur told her. "We`re going to flush them out, saddle my horse and pack some supplies, we`re leaving within the hour." With her bright mood only slightly dampened by the thought of a long ride with all of those boisterous knights, Merlin did as she was told. The young witch met Arthur nearly an hour later, overloaded by the two heavy packs on her back at the stables. As Arthur got onto his horse, Merlin tripped over thin air (as usual) and was sent flying forwards, nearly dropping the heavy packs to the ground - luckily Sir Leon darted forwards at the last moment to come to rescue.

He gripped Merlin by the shoulders for a moment after steadying her, she blushed and looked down awkwardly at her clumsy feet, readjusting the packs on her shoulder. "Are you alright, milady?" Leon asked, smiling at her embarrassment, at the use of her nickname that only the knights used, Leon more than anyone else.

"I told you not to call me that." Merlin jumped hurriedly back as Arthur shouted at her, looking decidedly irritable.

"Merlin, we were planning to leave before midday, if you're finished flirting!" Merlin flushed a bright scarlet and flicked her dark fringe out of her face, mock glaring over at the irritable prince.

"Coming your royal pratliness!" she yelled back, illustrating it with a mocking bow and hurried away from Leon, who too was grinning, to mount her own horse

All of the knights mounted their steeds and the group of ten knights, Merlin and the Prince all rode out of the gates. As they rode into the forest, Merlin let her grin stretch across her features - it may be a bumpy ride, but at least she could have some fun, teasing the knights while they rode. It was her high spirits that made her ignore the nagging feeling that something was wrong. She would regret that later, but for now she wanted to enjoy herself - she was with friends and it was her birthday - Merlin thought that she deserved a little fun for once.


	2. And straight into a trap

**And straight into a trap**

They had been riding for hours now, guiding their horses along the worn, pebbled path that wound through the trees, connecting the city of Camelot to the other villages. The usual stream of merchants, travelers and caravans was absent due to the marauders that had been plaguing the road for nearly a month. The king had only now sent Arthur and the knights to deal with them, because the traders were vital to keeping the palace kitchens stocked.

Arthur knew that his father probably wouldn't have done anything if it hadn't effected him directly. Arthur had been trying to convince his father to send out men to kill the bandits for well over a week - he didn't like people dying and suffering needlessly. Perhaps something that he and his father weren't on the same terms on.

The other knights had been laughing, joking and chatting in such a manner that he was surprised - only Merlin could elicit such behavior from the usually quite stoic and well disciplined knights. Arthur knew that a lot of the men's and Merlin's mirth was at his expense, it irritated him, the way that Merlin shamelessly mocked him to the knights. He was meant to be the epitome of the knights honor and prowess in battle and Merlin just mocked him for it. She was far too cheerful today, he would have to figure out what that was at some point. Though he also felt rather jealous of the way that Merlin could blend in with the knights, the way that she could become one of them, which he could never seem to do, the knights always seemed to remember their duty's as knights whenever Arthur was around, rather than seeing him as an equal or a friend, except perhaps Leon.

The sun was at midpoint in the sky and was beating mercilessly down on him and the other men, in their chain mail and armor they were all sweating and hot. Whereas Merlin was riding along in just her shirt and breeches, grinning like an idiot and enjoying the sunshine - it annoyed Arthur. He heard a particularly loud burst of laughter from behind and distinctly heard the words "royal prat" somewhere in the mix. The prince gritted his teeth in irritation and signaled to the party to stop.

"We'll stop here for a while, refresh the horses and then we'll set out again!" he ordered, dismounting from his own steed. "Merlin, that's you, idiot!" The prince yelled.

Arthur caught his servant shoot him an unreadable grin and took the reins of his and her horses, leading them over to the river in order to water them. The prince went over to the bank himself, crouching down to splash some cool water onto his face, it was very refreshing. He didn't hear someone approach him from behind until he was suddenly being thrown face first into the water. He had let his guard down.

Arthur flailed about in the water, drawing his sword hastily, expecting an attack, he stood dripping cold water as he saw all of the knights staring at him - all of whom were grinning. Merlin had an expression of mischievous innocence plastered all over her face as she put her hand to her mouth in mock horror. "Oh I'm so sorry my lord, clumsy me!" she gasped and all of the knights burst out laughing. Arthur waded angrily out of the river, fuming with humiliation, stomping towards the grinning servant. She hastily backtracked towards the river at the murderous expression on Arthur's face.

"Perhaps you'd like a wash too, _Merlin_?" growled Arthur, cornering Merlin against the riverbank. She was still grinning like the idiot she was and chirped back in an irritating sing song voice.

"No, I'm alright thanks. _You _needed it." The prince was about the tackle Merlin into the river but saw the man aiming a crossbow at her from the top of the hill, and pushed her out of the way at the last moment. The bolt whistled past Merlin's left ear by about an inch and slammed into Arthur's arm instead. The blonde prince grunted with pain and staggered back, as the knights all drew their swords, to meet the stream of roaring marauders that came pouring down the hill towards them.

"Arthur!" yelled Merlin and ran forward to catch Arthur as he nearly collapsed, he tried to unsheathe his sword but felt a stab of pain and realized that the bolt had pierced his sword arm. He gritted his teeth against the pain, the injured prince looked around desperately and soon realized that they were greatly outnumbered. Two of the knights were already dead and Leon and the others were obviously not going to win this one.

"Retreat!" he roared, the men instantly obeyed, fleeing back towards Camelot.

Merlin was supporting Arthur now, and was trying to drag him back through the river - there was no hope of escaping the other way. They splashed through the water and over the hill to the other side, Merlin was obviously struggling to keep him upright but she wasn't going to leave him - he knew that much. The serving girl dragged Arthur through the trees, panting as Arthur struggled to remain conscious. The edges of Arthur's world were going all fuzzy, but he fought to keep awake - they wouldn't get out of this otherwise. His concentration wavered but he managed to mostly keep aware.

Suddenly Merlin stopped moving and Arthur frowned in frustration. "Merlin, we can't stop now-" He then saw what had made her stop so abruptly - there was a large group of men surrounding them. There were about twenty of the marauders, dressed in varying shades of brown and black and all pointing weapons at them. "Stay back! I'm the crown prince of Camelot!" shouted Arthur as commandingly as he could, while leaning heavily on his serving girl and injured.

"We know full well who you are, boy. You're the whole reason we blocked off the road." A taller bandit stepped forward, he held a wicked looking axe in one hand, he was thin, muscled and had a nasty smile on his dark skinned features. "_You_ are going to be our payday, Prince Arthur." his dark eyes flashed. "Your father will pay us quite a lot for your return, I imagine."

Arthur felt blackness niggling at the edges of his vision once more, but fought it back. He had been ransomed twice before - it was fairly straightforward and mostly painless - just a few bruises, but both times he had been taken alone. Now he had Merlin to worry about.

"Very well, I'll come willingly." said Arthur in a clear, strong voice, meeting the man's eyes, which glinted with triumph.

"Good choice." he replied and gestured to the others who moved forward to grab Arthur. But Merlin held onto him more tightly, glaring around at them, her blue eyes daring them to come closer. "Kill the spare." ordered the leader, turning away.

"No!" Arthur roared as one of the marauders moved forward to grab Merlin, sword raised.


	3. Prat

**Prat **

From the moment that Arthur had announced to the whole bandit group that he was the prince of Camelot - Merlin had known that this could only end badly. He always seemed to think that his title would mean people _wouldn't _want to kill him - little did he know it was almost always usually the exact opposite. Merlin was struggling to keep him upright, most of the prince`s weight was on her and she could see that he was in a lot of pain. Arthur was usually quite good at hiding emotions but Merlin had a knack for being able to suss him out.

And now he was going to be held to ransom. She drew him closer to her as the men advanced, she wasn't going to let them take Arthur without a fight - she had put in too much work keeping him safe for it to end now. But then when the leader told them to kill her, she felt her heart skip into her mouth. She couldn't use magic right in front of Arthur and there were too many of them anyway. One of the bandits reached forward, grabbing her by the hair and pulling her away from Arthur, bringing his sword up to deal the final blow. She tried to twist away from the man but his grip on her hair was too painful and tight, she hissed and closed her eyes.

"No!" Arthur's roar came from behind her, and by the sounds of it he was putting up quite a fight considering his newly injured status. Merlin tensed, waiting for the blade to meet her skin, but then-

"Wait." The voice wasn't Arthur's - it was the bandit leader's, It sounded almost bored. She opened her eyes, the man holding her lowered his sword but did not release her. "What makes you care so much about one worthless servant?" he aimed the question at Arthur, who had a stony expression on his face, but his eyes betrayed his fear. Arthur was scared for _her_. That was new.

"I value those in my service and owe them protection as such, so I'd appreciate it if you didn't kill her." Arthur said in a steady voice, his eyes not leaving the bandit leader's dark ones.

"Oh, I think its more than that prince, you care about this one don't you?" The leader's eyes sparked with triumph as Arthur tensed.

"No, what makes you think that?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Onric here, told me that you pulled her out of the path of his crossbow - took a bolt for instead. _That _would imply that you might value her a bit more than a normal servant wouldn't it?" The leader chuckled nastily and looked over at Merlin and her captor. "Bring the wench too, she might be useful for keeping our little prince in line."

"I already said I cooperate, you don't need to do that. Let her go." Arthur made one final, desperate attempt. It seemed that Arthur was protecting her more than she was him. She twisted around in her captor's grip, wincing at the pain in her hair, but she caught Arthur's gaze.

"No, its fine sire, I'll go." The young witch stared hard at him, trying to tell him that she wasn't going to leave him. Arthur nodded almost imperceptibly. She knew that she was either going to die now or be taken with Arthur - she knew what the obvious option was.

"Bind them." The bandit leader ordered. "We're leaving." Merlin felt her captor pull something from his belt and then her hands were being tugged behind her back and rough rope was tightening around her wrists. She saw the same procedure taking place with Arthur and his guard too, the prince looked like he wanted nothing more than to punch something. He was sweating and Merlin was extremely concerned that he was loosing too much blood, he looked ready to collapse. And when his captor tried to pull him to his feet he did. Merlin struggled against her bonds, trying to get to Arthur, he needed her help.

"Don't worry little bird, we won't let the prince die - what use would he be to us then?" The bandit leader came over to stand in front of Merlin, smirking down at her. He reached down to grip her chin, pulling it up so that he could look into her face, unable to fight back, she spat at him. He backhanded her hard across the face and she fell to the ground with a hiss of pain, unable to stop her fall due to having bound hands.

"Not a good idea, little bird, aggravating me will only make your situation that much worse - we won't kill your prince, but **_you_** have no such value." The bandit leader gestured to the men around him, they picked up the unconscious form of Arthur and Merlin was forced to her feet. _This cannot end well. _


	4. Little birds learn lessons

**Little birds learn lessons **

Arthur awoke with a groan. He was soon aware of the blazing pain in his arm, from where the crossbow bolt had pierced it. He groggily opened his eyes, they registered a dimly lit tent, the sunlight was filtering through the dark tent material, shifting lights and colours swirling around the enclosed space. Arthur was in the middle of the tent, his hands tied to the main supporting pole, his armour was gone and he realized that someone had bandaged up his wound.

The arm was tender and it still hurt but it had obviously been well tended to by a competent healer - not Merlin then. . . Wait _Merlin! _He twisted around, trying to catch sight of his bumbling servant, but other than a small pile of hay in the corner and a plate with a crust of bread on it, he was alone in the tent. _Where is Merlin? _He remembered being injured, captured and then bargaining for Merlin's life. He must be in the marauders camp, and judging from the light coming through the tent fabric, it was sunset. He had probably only been unconscious for about a couple of hours.

Arthur knew that he had to try to find a way out of here - he wasn't worried much about himself, the bandits probably wouldn't give him more than a few bruises if they wanted him as a ransom. Uther would certainly pay whatever the men wanted - Arthur was his only son and heir. No, he was more concerned for his missing servant. The bandit leader had seemed quite interested in Merlin and he didn't like that one bit.

Arthur tested his ropes with a tug or two, he could probably get out of them if he really had to, but he knew that he would probably have to dislocate a finger to do so. While the prince knew that he could deal with the pain and would be able to pop it back in, Arthur still decided that it would only be a last resort - he didn't want to injure himself unnecessarily.

But then when he heard a familiar cry of pain from nearby, he seriously considered risking the pain. He yelled back "Merlin!"

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Merlin didn't like being tied up, not one little bit. She had been led into a large, well furnished tent nearly an hour ago and then roughly shoved to the floor. Her wrists were sore from the course rope that was tying them behind her back, she had managed to push herself up into a sitting position and was now resting with her back up against the middle tent pole.

The marauders had blindfolded her when they had neared their camp - presumably to keep the location a secret. But once she was in the camp they had removed it again, she had seen the shamble of brown cloth tents and the large fire pit burning in the middle of the camp. She had been surprised to see that some of the bandits seemed to have families - there were a few hard faced women and even two grubby children. It never seemed to occur to her that the men who plagued the forests and robbed caravans might actually have families and almost normal lives too.

Unlike all of the worn, dirty tents that surrounded it - this tent was made of a thicker black material, the sort that didn't let any light through. Merlin wasn't sure how long she'd been in there now, but her aching body suggested it had been quite a while. In true clumsy fashion she had managed to trip several times while being blind folded earlier and now had the bruises to show for it. The young witch fidgeted, what was going to happen to her? She wasn't sure where Arthur was so she couldn't consider using magic and anyway there were more than fifty bandits in this camp - she wasn't going to leave, let alone without Arthur.

"Comfortable?" asked a voice from the tent doorway. Merlin's head snapped up to see the bandit leader enter, ducking through the flap. He was very tall, was thin, but well muscled and had dark skin. He had a bald head and dark glittering eyes that were now fixed on her.

"Not too bad, wouldn't mind untying me would you?" she asked, flashing an innocent smile up at the bandit leader.

"Oh I don't think so, little bird. You look mighty fine just the way you are." Merlin blinked. She didn't like the way that he was looking at her - it was too intense.

"Who are you?" she asked, trying to make him stop staring at her in that way.

"Of course, how rude of me, I am Khal, leader of this modest little ensemble of cutthroats and thieves. May I have your name in return?" Merlin shifted, uneasily on the ground. Khal spoke in a very strange way, she noted, in a very antique fashion, as if he were a nobleman. But there was no way that this man could be a noble - could he?

"Where's Arthur?" she asked. Khal did not seem to like this abrupt change of topic, he frowned and took a step towards her.

"I believe I asked you a question first, little bird. What's your name?" Merlin tried to get to her feet, wobbling as she did so.

"Where's _Arthur_?" she asked the question in a firm tone, meeting Khal`s dark eyes with her own blue ones.

"Didn't I tell you not to aggravate me? Don't be rude. Answer my question." he stepped forward and gripped her by the chin. She obstinately glared up at him, refusing to play his games.

That was of course, until he brought his wicked looking axe up to her face, he rested it against her cheek. Her eyes widened in fear. Khal sliced the axe across her face with a spurt of dark blood and Merlin cried out in pain. He dropped her, sending a kick into her ribs, she was sent into a coughing fit by this, her eyes watering. Merlin could feel hot, sticky blood coursing down her face from the gash he had made on her face. Then she heard her name yelled. "Merlin!" _Prat. _


	5. Ground rules

**Ground rules **

Arthur heard another cry of pain come from nearby and that was what decided him. He began rotating his wrists, backwards and forwards until he felt that weak sweet spot that he'd felt from testing them earlier. Gritting his teeth, Arthur gave a sharp jerk on the ropes, he felt a stab of pain as his finger popped out of its socket. He wriggled his hands for another moment before he felt them give way, he hissed in pain as the dislocated finger was jostled but ignored it. He grimly took a hold of the finger and popped it back into place, it hurt him but not as much as the thought of why Merlin might be making those cry's.

Arthur jumped to his feet and hurried over to the tent flap, he looked outside, he had right about being in the bandit's camp. It was a large collection of dirty brown and black material tents, a large fire in the middle. There were two guards on either side of his tent, the first went down with one well aimed blow to the head. The second turned just in time to have his nose broken by a good swing from the irate prince.

He heard another yell of pain come from the largest tent, it was the one next to the tent adjacent to his. Arthur ran over, startling a few chickens that had been pecking in the dirt. He ran into the tent, just in time to see a tall, dark man pinning Merlin to the ground. She had blood covering the whole left side of her face, like some sort of gruesome tribal war paint. The girl's eyes were unfocused and she was panting raggedly, the man holding her down was holding an axe in one hand, but the look in his eyes was far more dangerous and predatory than any weapon.

"Merlin!" The man straddling Merlin looked up sharply, she tried to rise but he sent a blow into her stomach that knocked her back down again. "Leave her alone!" Arthur yelled, advancing on the man, hands balled tight in fury. Suddenly Arthur was being grappled from behind, several bandits were pulling his arms up behind his back and a blow to the back of his knees sent him to the ground.

"I was right, you really _are very_ protective of this little bird aren't you?" chuckled the man, smirking at Arthur, who struggled against the hands holding him.

"Leave her alone!" he growled, glaring fiercely at him.

"Arthur leave it!" Merlin's voice sounded a scared and strained.

"I'll make you a deal Pendragon - I wont touch a hair on her pretty little head - _if _you promise to cooperate and do everything we say." The leader's eyes glinted with a strange light and he smiled in a very twisted, scary way. "Sound fair to you?"

Arthur swallowed. On one hand he wanted Merlin safe but on the other he wanted to escape if he could. He didn't even know if he could trust this man - bandits weren't exactly known for being trustworthy after all. Arthur didn't think that Merlin would survive this if he didn't agree, so he nodded, grim faced and replied "Sounds fair, but if you hurt Merlin, I'll kill you with my bare hands." The man grinned like a hunting wolf might, all sharp, white teeth and feral hunger.

"Good, take the prince back to his tent." he ordered to the men holding Arthur, they pulled him to his feet and led him out of the tent, he let them do it. The bandit rose up off of Merlin, who gasped for air - unable to get back up due to having bound hands. "Your servant will be joining you soon, I just need to teach her some manners first."

Arthur felt his heart skip a beat and he dug his feet in, trying to stop the men from leading him out. "You said you wouldn't hurt her if I cooperated!" Arthur yelled, tugging in a futile attempt to free himself from the bandit's grips.

"And exactly so - _you _just made an escape attempt, I wouldn't call that cooperating would you?" The bandit leader laughed nastily at Arthur's furious face. "What do you think an escape attempt it worth _Merlin?_ A good beating certainly?" Merlin looked up fearfully at him and then glanced desperately to Arthur.

"You lying bastard!" the prince roared, but he was pulled from the tent before he could do anything. Once back in his tent, the four men held him down while two more tied his hands to the main pole tightly and bound his feet together. One pulled out a piece of cloth and tied it over his eyes as a blindfold. Arthur sat in darkness, fuming with anger, shaking with fear and unable to move as he heard more cries of pain come from the bandit leader's tent.


	6. Little birds with broken wings

**Little birds with broken wings **

Merlin was having trouble seeing straight, her vision had gone all blurry at the edges and her face _really _hurt. The young witch managed to push herself back up to her feet, staggering as she did so - she didn't want to be at Khal`s mercy any more than she could help it. Once Arthur had been dragged bodily, kicking and screaming from the tent, she had felt the fear set in - but at least Arthur was safe.

Her priorities always went Arthur, family, friends, pretty much everyone else and then herself. Maybe Gaius had been right when he said that she had absolutely no sense of self preservation, it wasn't that she didn't value her life or want to be hurt - she just wanted to help others more than herself.

Merlin was pulled out of her thoughts by Khal`s voice. "Why are you so fond of each other?" he asked, frowning down at her, he was by the table in the centre of the room, pouring something from a jug into a goblet.

"We're not - he's an insufferable prat and he thinks of me as an idiot. He's just like a child - doesn't like sharing." Merlin replied, surreptitiously trying to work her skinny wrists out of the ropes.

"So he just see's you as property then?" he asked sceptically, raising a sardonic black eyebrow.

"Yep, as I said he's a child really - doesn't like sharing his toys." she said with an absent smirk. _Just a little bit more. . . _The rope was nearly off, just one more twist.

"You're a toy?" Khal chuckled. "Some wine?" he offered her the goblet that he had just been pouring.

"What happened to the beating? And how the heck am I meant to drink that with my hands tied?" Khal took a step closer to her, still holding out the goblet towards her, he smiled at her in a rather patronizing way but underneath it was a hint of something more predatory.

"Come now, little bird, we both know that you got free of your binds more than a minute ago." He took another step towards her, he was now close enough to reach out and touch her face - Merlin was suddenly very aware that she was backed up in the corner, by the bed. She pulled her hands out from behind her back and smacked the goblet from his hand, sliding across the floor, straight through his legs and rolled to stand on the other side of the table. This had all happened in under a second, aided by a flash of golden eyes and a convenient slowing down of time. Khal smile was like a wolf's as he turned to face her, his gaze was fixed on her as he moved around the table towards her. She immediately backed up around the table the other way and then nearly hit herself as she realized that it was just what he had wanted - she was up against the tent back wall again.

"You've got far too much spirit in you little bird, I think that I might have to clip your wings." Khal stalked forward, grabbing Merlin and pinning her down on the bed - a rush of fear went through her. _Was he going to rape her? _Khal reached over to grip her right arm, one hand bracing her shoulder and the other tight on her lower arm. Merlin didn't realize what he was doing until he gave a brutal yank and she heard bone break. The young witch screamed in pain, clutching at her broken arm, it hurt like hell and her already blurred vision nearly vanished altogether. _Oh gods, how it hurt! _

Khal picked her up and draped her over his shoulder, she didn't struggle - it hurt to much to move. He carried her out of the tent, into the darkened camp, broken arm making her whimper with every step as it was jostled. The bandit pushed open a tent flap and she vaguely heard a voice call her name, but everything seemed to be muffled and distant. Merlin screamed out in agony when Khal threw her down onto a pile of what felt like straw, it was softer than the ground but her arm still hit it too hard. The pain was nearly blinding

She felt a hand grip her hair, tugging it up for Khal to lean over and whisper in her ear. "I'll be back for you later, little bird - it gets awful lonely out here and your prince just isn't behaving himself." Merlin felt the oncoming blackness envelope her, and she welcomed it - at least it was painless.


	7. Thats a promise

**That's a promise**

Arthur was furious, he had been sitting in the darkened tent for nearly half an hour and he was growing increasingly concerned for Merlin. He had made a promise to Gaius to keep her safe, it had been just after the disastrous events of the feast where Merlin had ended up poisoned. The old physician had thanked Arthur for getting the Morteus flower to him in order to save Merlin's life, but he had then asked Arthur to try to look out for her - she seemed to not have any sense of self preservation. Arthur had whole heartedly agreed - he did not take promises lightly.

Arthur heard a loud scream, louder than any he had heard before, it was obvious that Merlin must be in a great deal of pain. The prince had given up struggling, the ropes were a lot stronger than before and in any case, trying to escape would just get Merlin hurt even more. Arthur heard the tent flap open and then footsteps, they went past him and then he heard a thump and a yell of pain. Someone must have carried Merlin in, Arthur twisted in his restraints, trying to work the blindfold from his eyes.

Suddenly the material was removed and he blinked up at the bandit leader, he smirked down at Arthur. "Your servant is quite spirited isn't she?" Arthur bristled.

"What have you done to Merlin?" he asked in a slow, angry voice.

"I've just made sure that you realize that trying to cross me is a _very _bad idea, boy." The bandit leader reached around to Arthur's bound hands and cut the rope attaching them to the main pole. He left the tent before Arthur could get the chance to attack him, but Arthur was already crawling over to the heap in the corner of the tent.

"Merlin?" he called softly, reaching out to shake her by the shoulder - but stopped himself at the last moment. There was something wrong about the angle of Merlin's arm, he gently rolled her onto her back and swore. Her arm was clearly broken, splayed out at a worrying angle and he could see dark bruises already forming at her shoulder where her shirt had been pulled back. That _bastard _had broken her arm. Arthur quickly looked for more injuries, there was a large bruise on her face and the cut on her cheek was still bleeding quite a bit. But otherwise Merlin seemed ok, he wasn't about to check under her shirt though so he couldn't be completely sure. Arthur tore off a strip of his shirt and used it to wipe some of the blood off of Merlin's face. At the touch of the fabric, Merlin screwed up her face and shifted in her unconsciousness.

"Merlin? Can you hear me?" Merlin twitched but didn't wake. A sudden idea struck Arthur. "Merlin get up! You're late for work, idiot!" To his surprise - it worked. Merlin moaned and her eyes flickered open.

"Prat, can dress yourself can't you?" Arthur felt relief wash over him.

"How do you feel?" Merlin grimaced as she shifted, trying to sit up, she gasped in pain and clutched her broken arm.

"Not so good really, but I'll live." she put on a tired smirk, but Arthur knew that she was in a lot more pain than she was letting on.

"He broke your arm, Merlin, I'm sorry, it was my fault-" Merlin cut him off with a frown.

"No, it was my fault, I pissed him off."

Arthur choked out a laugh. "No changes there then."

"You shouldn't have done that, Arthur." Merlin muttered. "You shouldn't have promised to cooperate, you should try to escape - I know that you could, just leave me, I'll be fine-"

Arthur put a finger on her lips and said firmly. "Shut up, Merlin."

Merlin impatiently brushed his arm away. "But-"

Arthur cut her off quickly. "I'm not leaving you, this conversation is over." Arthur winced as he rubbed his injured shoulder, it still ached like mad, no matter how well it had been treated, it would still take at least three days to heal properly.

"How's your shoulder? Can I have a look at it?" Merlin asked but Arthur shook his head and showed her the bandages.

"I'm fine - they want to keep _me _alive." he mumbled, the prince suddenly felt very tired and he settled down on the hay pile with a sigh. Merlin took off her neckerchief and began making a makeshift sling for her broken arm, wincing with pain as she did so. The servant then moved to sit over by the main pole, with her back pressed against it. Arthur moved over to Merlin and pulled her back onto the hay pile, laying opposite him.

"What _are _you doing?" Merlin asked, her eyebrows raised to an impressive level.

"I'm keeping you where I can see you and anyway its more comfortable here - you _do _have a broken arm in case you hadn't noticed." Merlin opened her mouth and then closed it again, she huffed and settled down on the hay so that her feet were behind Arthur's head.

"Get some sleep." Arthur murmured into the darkness. "We're going to get out of here - that's a promise." Merlin whispered.

"You stole my line." Arthur muttered back, kicking her playfully in the head. Both master and servant shared a chuckle before falling into their own uneasy sleeps.


	8. Brave little bird

**Brave little bird**

Merlin awoke with a start, she was suddenly aware of not being alone in the tent. Arthur was still lying next to her, much to her embarrassment, they had somehow huddled together during the night, Arthur's arm was around her waist. She carefully tried to extricate herself from underneath his arm, but Arthur tightened his grip, pulling her closer and mumbled. "Merlin." The young witch froze, _what _**was**_ Arthur dreaming about? _It wasn't that she didn't like him holding her - she did, it was warm and comfortable and reassuringly familiar. It was that she didn't think that it was the time or place for it, and besides - she wasn't sure if she was ready for what this sort of contact might mean.

So she decided to revert to something that she knew. "Oy prat! Beauty sleeps over!" she shook him and almost burst out laughing as he bolted straight upright, looking bewildered and then when he saw Merlin - went bright red.

"Oh. .Merlin. .I um." Arthur's embarrassed bumbling was cut off as Khal entered the tent, flanked by three burly bandits. "Bring them." Two of the guards tackled Arthur, grappling him so that he was held tightly between both of them.

Khal grabbed Merlin by her broken arm, which made her shout out in pain as he tied her hands together in front of her - she didn't think she could have handled it if they had been pulled behind. Her arm burned with agony, it was enough to make her have to grit her teeth against it, to stop from crying out again.

Merlin watched in worry as Arthur was grappled to his feet and dragged from the tent, Merlin was pushed after him, staggering as her eyes met with the sudden light, they were out in the main area - where the huge fire was still roaring. Merlin noticed that some of the women were leading their children back to the tents, casting worried looks over at her and the prince. _This can't be good _thought Merlin as she and Arthur were pushed down onto their knees by the flames, a bit too close for her liking, she could feel the heat from the flames blowing into her face. She began to sweat.

There was a large group of bandits forming around the fire now, hard faced and muscled men in varying shades of brown and black furs and rough clothing. All except for Khal, who was wearing a dark hide chest plate and dark trousers, he released Merlin and moved over to stand in front of Arthur. "We have sent a message to your father in Camelot, boy and we expect his answer by nightfall."

Khal announced with a self satisfied smirk. "Your father is a very rich man, so I am sure that he will pay for the return of his only son and heir." Arthur defiantly stared back up at Khal, jaw set with determination. "And? Is there a point to this?" he asked with a bored tone in his voice that only Merlin could tell was hiding something a lot more dangerous underneath.

"My _point _is, that as this is probably the only time I'll have a chance to test the `**legendary**` skills of Prince Arthur Pendragon - **fabled** swordsman and knight of Camelot. I'd like you to prove this title to me and my men, little prince." Khal gestured to the group of bandits, who roared and shouted their approval. Arthur gave the bandit leader a bemused look.

"And why do think that I'd agree to proving something so obvious?" Merlin inwardly cringed and rolled her sapphire eyes - Arthur was letting Khal goad him and when Arthur grew cocky, he often lost his sense.

"Oh, but I thought that you gave your word that you would cooperate, little prince?" Khal chuckled nastily as Arthur bristled. "Does your word mean nothing?" The bandit took a step towards Merlin, who glowered up at him.

"You really think that prince prat over there cares _that _much? He cares about his gorramn sword more than me!" Merlin tried, looking defiantly into Khal`s dark, piercing eyes. "That's true you know, my sword is pretty damn good." Arthur commented.

"Yeah, only cause I spend all my time cleaning it." Merlin retorted with a snort of laughter.

Khal growled in annoyance and motioned to the men holding Arthur, who released him, stepping back into the semi circle that had formed around this section of the fire. Arthur leapt to his feet, looking confused as one of the larger bandits moved forward to face him. Khal grabbed Merlin by the hair, tugging it so that her throat was exposed and looked over to Arthur. "You _will _entertain us boy, and it can happen one of two ways - either you fight Halg here **or** we string up your little servant and watch her twitch - your choice."

Arthur's eyes widened in fear, then his jaw set. "Fine, I'll fight."

Merlin watched on in concern as the large bandit advanced on Arthur - it looked like it was going to be a straight down dirty brawl. This wasn't good, Arthur may be good with a sword but his hand to hand skills weren't anywhere near as good. Merlin felt her heart pounding in her chest, she knew that they wouldn't kill Arthur because he was their pay off, but that wouldn't stop them hurting him - giving him bruises, cuts or broken bones.

Halg swung a large slab like fist at Arthur, which he ducked easily and sent a kick into the his back, he went staggering forwards with a grunt of annoyance. The two men continued to dance about in this manner for a while - Halg swinging punch after punch and Arthur evading his clumsy attacks with moderate ease. But then Arthur seemed to just give up, letting one of Halg`s punches hit him straight in the jaw, he grunted and fell down, hands raised in surrender. "I'm done - you won." Arthur said in a tone that Merlin knew meant that he just wanted to stop fighting now.

But Khal wasn't convinced, he tightened his grip on Merlin's hair and barked out a laugh. "I don't think so prince, you're not really trying." An idea seemed to hit the bandit leader. "Every hit you get from now on, goes double onto Merlin here." Arthur's eyes widened and he threw himself into the fight with a new vigour, socking Halg in the face. "That's more like it!" roared Khal, the crowd roared its approval - the fight got more brutal.


	9. Brawler

**Brawl**

Arthur swung another punch at the muscle mountain that was advancing on him, the man grunted and threw a punch of his own that Arthur only just dodged. They had been brawling for several minutes now and Arthur was beginning to tire, but his main objective was not to win, but to just avoid getting hit. The prince had originally hoped that Halg would just tire after a while and Arthur would be able to take him down more easily, but the constant dodging was exhausting Arthur more than it was Halg.

Sweat was pouring down Arthur's face and he was panting heavily, his shoulder wound was making it very painful to swing punches and he just wasn't as strong with his other arm. He ducked under another blow, aimed at his head, but only just, this guy was very big and just as strong. But then Arthur's luck ran out. Halg threw another fist towards Arthur's face, but at the last moment sent his knee up into the blonde's stomach. Arthur grunted in pain as all of the air rushed out of his lungs, he staggered back, coughing, his eyes watering. "First hit!" He heard a roar go up from the crowd and remembered what that meant.

Arthur looked up just in time to see Khal punching Merlin hard in the face, she cried out as her head snapped back, the blow reopening the slash on her face, blood spurted. Khal then sent a foot into her ribs, she fell onto the ground, panting and moaning in pain. Arthur suddenly felt a blow hit the side of his head, sending hot agony radiating through his skull. Halg had taken advantage of Arthur's distraction to bear down on him like a man shaped mountain. He sent kick after kick into Arthur's chest once he was down, the pain was made much worse however as he heard Merlin's corresponding cries as Khal beat her senseless.

He caught Merlin's gaze as they were both pummelled into the ground, Merlin's blue eyes were unfocused and she closed them. Suddenly Halg was off of his feet and Arthur took full advantage of it, he pushed himself up painfully and sent a punch straight into the brute's face. Arthur didn't stop there, he threw blow after blow down onto Halg until he went limp.

Arthur stood, panting in the middle of the ring of bandits who had stopped roaring and were all looking disappointed at their vanquished champion. "I think I won." Arthur spat through bloody teeth, glaring over at Khal, who was holding the limp form of Merlin by the scruff of her shirt. Merlin's face was bloody and bruised, her eye was swollen shut and the gash on her cheek was gashing blood down her pale face. Khal looked annoyed that his sadistic little game was over, but grimaced and released Merlin, she groaned and staggered back to her feet, staggering away from the bandit leader.

"Ar`th`r?" Merlin coughed and spat blood onto the ground, swaying where she stood. "You ok?" Arthur didn't answer, he just went over to Merlin and pulled her by the unbroken arm back to the tent. Once inside, Arthur peeked back through the flap, he saw the crowd dissipating, trudging back to their own tents and Khal talking animatedly to two of his men, looking irritated. "Arthur, you alright?" Merlin asked, touching his arm, he turned back to look at his injured servant.

"Nothing but some bruises and a spilt lip, I'll be fine. Its you I'm worried about, how bad is it?"

Merlin grinned dazedly back at him."Just peachy thanks."

"I'm serious Merlin, you're not exactly looking your best, let me have a look." Arthur reached over and gently took Merlin's battered face in his hands, carefully turning it from one side to the other to inspect the damage. Her skin was covered in dark purple, red and blue bruising, her eye was puffy and swollen and her gash was still bleeding badly. "It'll heal, you're lucky, but I need to do something about that cut and your arm."

Merlin looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "Jeez Arthur, how hard did that guy hit you? Did he give you brain damage?"

Arthur went over to sit on the pile of hay in the corner of the tent, flopping onto it and closing his eyes, rubbing his sore shoulder, he suddenly felt a warm hand on his arm and looked up at Merlin who was gently pulling back the top of his shirt. "Let me look at it." she muttered with a look that a parent might give to a misbehaving child. Merlin pulled back the shirt until she could get at the bandages which were covered in blood.

The young girl proceeded to remove the bandages and examined the crossbow bolt wound, it was red, swollen and bloody, torn skin around the edges. "I need to clean this, its infected." Merlin muttered, rising to her feet she went over to the tent flap. "Can we have some clean water please and some bandages if you have them?" she asked the bandit guarding the entrance. The guard frowned at her and left, he came back a minute later with the bandit leader - Khal. Arthur didn't like the way that Khal looked at Merlin - it was predatory, wanting.

"I need clean water and bandages." Arthur was impressed with how calm and business like Merlin managed to look, she was doing a very good job of controlling the fear that she must be feeling.

"And why should I give them to you, little bird?" Khal asked, looming over her.

"They're not for me, they're for your bounty." Merlin said in an icy tone. "He'll get an infection otherwise." Khal seemed to ponder this for a few moments before nodding his agreement.

"Very well, I'll have food, water and bandages brought to your prince, but you will oblige me with your company for your own meal."

Arthur tensed at this - what did Khal want from Merlin? From the all too intense look he was giving her, Arthur could hazard a good guess. "No, Merlin, I'll be fine without them, now get back over here. Now." He ordered, giving his servant a meaningful, hard stare.

"Its fine Arthur, if that's what he wants, I'll do it." Merlin replied coolly, not looking at Arthur, keeping her gaze on Khal. The bandit leader smirked and left the tent, the moment he had gone Merlin visibly deflated and a look of pain, exhaustion and worry swept over her face.

"Why did you do that you idiot?" Arthur growled, Merlin turned to him with a look of forced cheeriness - it looked brittle.

"Just saving your life as usual clot pole." At that moment a scared looking woman in a stained brown apron entered the tent, tentatively handing Merlin a bundle of cloth, a jug and a small bottle with a greenish contents. The woman fled the tent before Merlin could thank her, the servant came back over to Arthur a began tending to his wound, dabbing at it with the water soaked cloth and pouring a little of the green paste onto it.

Arthur hissed as the stuff touched his skin but gritted his teeth and put up with the stinging pain. Merlin closed her eyes for a moment and he felt warm and sleepy. "Thanks, Merlin." Arthur murmured as Merlin finished off tying the bandages around Arthur's shoulder, he suddenly felt very tired and let himself drop back to the hay with a sigh. He wasn't awake to see her being led from the tent by one of the guards. He wasn't awake to hear the screams that rang around the camp. And Merlin was almost glad that she had given him a sleeping enchantment.


	10. Loosing control

**Loosing control**

Merlin stood in the entrance to the tent, she was shaking from the effort of standing, her broken arm was aching with a burning pain, her face was stinging and painful and it hurt to breath. She had dulled the pain a bit with her magic and worked a little bit of healing on her broken bone - not enough to be suspicious, but enough to help it heal back into the right place. But she still felt exhausted and aching from the beating and lack of food or water. Khal was sitting at the table in the centre of the tent, it had been laid out with plates and dishes of delicious smelling food. The smell of roasted meat was strong enough to make Merlin's stomach growl, she felt light headed with it all.

"Come, sit down." Khal said with a smile that must have meant to have been welcoming, but just looked sinister coming from him. "You must be hungry." he motioned to the low chair opposite him, she hesitated for a moment before deciding that she would be less likely to collapse or shake if she was sat, that and the fact that her legs were _really _sore. Merlin lowered herself onto the chair, trying to sit straight backed and maintain her icy cool façade - it helped her feel more in control, even though she really wasn't.

"Eat, little bird, you're practically skin and bones." Khal pushed a plate of charred meat towards her, it smelt good despite the amount of fat and the fact that it was a bit burnt. Her mouth watered as she eyed it, but her better instincts stopped her from reaching out and devouring it instantly like she wanted to. "You think I want to poison you?" Khal asked with a chuckle. "If I wanted to kill you little bird I wouldn't poison you - I'd beat you to death with my bare hands or perhaps run you through with my sword, maybe string you up from a tree. But not poison, that's a noble's weapon - for cowards like your prince." Merlin stared up at him in worry, but he smiled and leaned back in his chair, sipping from his wine goblet.

Merlin tentatively picked up a piece of meat, sniffing it before eating, the taste was so good that she grabbed another piece and another, quickly the plate was empty. Merlin chewed and swallowed the last piece before saying. "If poison is a noble's weapon then, what does that make you? You attack innocent people on the road and spring traps on men like Arthur who are just trying to _save _those people. Surely that makes you worse than them?"

Khal`s smile vanished, replaced by a look of frustration and irritation. "I only attacked those people to draw out your prince, he is renound for his idiotic love of dangerous quests and helping those in danger. And I don't think that its your place to question my actions or motives, little bird."

"Why? Don't like having to justify yourself?" Merlin asked heatedly, she hated it when people suffered needlessly and from the reports she had heard from Arthur and the other knights, this bandit clan was responsible for more than thirty deaths and had raided from at least ten caravans. She rose to her feet, shaking with anger.

"You claim that you're not a coward, but you kill innocent people and abuse those in your care - even though Arthur is your ransom, you still decided to beat him to a pulp! You're nothing but a coward!" Merlin stood, staring daggers at Khal, all traces of humour had gone from his face now, replaced by a blank, flat, scary look as he too rose to his full and considerable height.

"Little bird, I told you not to aggravate me, I don't care about the little agreement I made with your prince anymore, I think that he should thank me later for teaching you some respect." Khal reached over the table and grabbed Merlin by the throat, she gagged and tried to pull herself out of his grip, but he dragged her over the top of the table, sending plates and cups crashing to the ground. Khal threw her across the tent as if she weighed nothing, she flew, crashing into the bed frame, knocking all of the air out of her lungs. Khal grabbed her by the throat again, shaking her, she glanced looking for something to levitate at him, her eyes fixed on one of the fallen goblets, in a flash of golden irises the goblet struck the back of Khal`s head.

The bandit leader cursed, clutching at his head and staggered away from her, Merlin took the opportunity to leap to her feet and try to dodge towards the exit. She was nearly there but then a hand grabbed hold of her neckerchief, pulling her to a choking halt, Khal growled and used his leverage to drag her back. Merlin was thrown back onto the bed and despite however much she fought, he was just so much stronger than she was - she wasn't strong enough. Panic flooded through her as Khal pulled at her breeches, trying to work them off her hips. "Stop!" she cried, her brain numb with fear.

Khal chuckled nastily and pulled down her breeches, exposing her underclothes and the skinny expanse of her pale legs. "Get off me!" she screamed, his hands were all over her, pushing up and under her shirt, fondling and defiling her skin. She did not want this, she did not want this! Khal was pulling down his own trousers now, she knew what was coming and she did not _want this! _Khal began to pull at her underclothes. "STOP!" And suddenly Merlin _was_ strong enough to fight him off, she pushed at his chest, her eyes glowed golden and Khal went flying back with a loud crash into the table.

Merlin could feel her magic boiling underneath her sweaty skin, begging to be released, she stood, eyes blazing gold, raven hair floating in the sheer power of the aura of her magic. The young witch tried desperately to fight her magic, she was scared that she would do something that even she wouldn't be able to explain her way out of. Merlin didn't think there would be any possible excuse that she could come up with for killing Khal and possibly burning down the bandit camp single handily - not even _Arthur_ was _that_ stupid.

Her magic was too volatile anyway, she could end up hurting Arthur and that was something she knew that she could never allow to happen. She wasn't well trained enough, she knew it, either spells didn't work, they worked too much or things happened that she didn't mean to. Merlin scrunched up her eyes, trying to force the magic back into submission, she clutched her head. But then all choice was taken out of her hands when something heavy hit the back of her head and she collapsed.

**Thank you for all the great reviews guys! I hope you`re enjoying this fanfic, i have others too, i`m very mean to Merlin but at the end of this one is a bit of Merthur slushy happy bits! Thank you especeiall to Natalia Sunny! I hope that i took on your advice well! **


	11. Decisions, decisions

**Decisions, decisions . . .**

Arthur was in a happy, warm, soft place. It was nice here, all shimmering pretty blue and golden lights, the lights were distinctly magical, but weren't scary, in fact they seemed very familiar and comforting. The lights reminded him of that mysterious glowing orb that had guided him out away from the giant spiders, in order to get the Morteus flower. They were the same mellow, pretty glowing colour and were without a doubt _good, _in fact they reminded him of Merlin. Arthur could feel a presence all around him, it felt like it was trying to keep him safe, happy. But then all of that disappeared.

He awoke with a shout, by the feels of it, someone had just kicked him in the ribs. "Rise and shine!" shouted a voice, stupid Merlin, he had been having such a nice dream. . .

"Go away, Merlin." Arthur moaned. But then he was being pulled roughly to his feet - Merlin wasn't strong enough to do that. Arthur opened his eyes to see Khal. It all came flooding back to him.

The bandit leader had a smirk on his face as he said.

"Your father has come to collect you boy, and I'm quite eager to get my reward." Arthur looked frantically around the tent, Merlin wasn't there, _oh no no, no! _The last thing that he really remembered was Merlin tending to his wounds and then feeling so tired. Two men came over to Arthur and tied his wrists behind his back and then they led him roughly from the tent.

"Where is she?!" he yelled, eyes blazing as he was tugged along by the two thugs holding him. Khal ignored him and carried on walking, Arthur was being taken out of the camp it seemed, presumably to a meeting spot where he would be exchanged for the ransom. But that didn't really seem important in light of the fact that Merlin wasn't with him. It wasn't just that he had made a promise to Gaius, it was that Merlin was as important to him as breathing, he _needed _to know that she was safe.

Suddenly a blindfold was tied around his eyes, he guessed it was so that Arthur couldn't lead anyone back to the bandit's camp. He was led stumbling through the forest, he could feel leaves rustling beneath his boots now. He could hear the footsteps of at least ten people around him, he wondered if his father would come to collect him in person - he doubted it.

They walked on for nearly half an hour before Arthur was pulled to a stop, the blindfold was removed from his eyes, and he squinted in the bright sunlight, that lit up the glade he was now in.

There were about a dozen bandits around him, all armed and looking rather nervous despite their numbers, were they scared of the knights of Camelot that were now riding into the clearing? Arthur only counted four knights, including Sir Leon, that worried him slightly, why were there so few of them? The whole situation was making him jittery, he had a feeling that something very bad was about to happen - the sooner this was all over, the better.

Arthur was pushed to his knees on the leafy forest floor, and behind him he heard a thump and a rustle as something heavy was dropped to the ground. The prince twisted around to see what it was and felt his blood freeze in his veins. It was Merlin. She was laying spread-eagled face down in the leaves and she wasn't moving. Her arms were both tied behind her back in what Arthur knew would be a very painful position for her broken arm, if she had been awake.

But what scared him more was that she was only wearing a shirt, no breeches and from what he could see, her upper legs were covered in blood. Arthur felt icy rage flood through his body, Merlin had been _raped, _and as he looked over at Khal he had a good idea as to who had done it. Arthur had never felt so much hate towards anyone as he did towards that sadistic bastard right now, he was shaking with rage and wanted nothing more than to kill Khal with his bare hands. But he knew that he couldn't so he knelt there, feeling his anger and hatred bubbling like freezing fire underneath his skin.

"I have your prince here, send over the money and you can have him back once I have my gold." Khal called over to the knights who were now dismounting, Leon at the front. Arthur could see that Leon held several large sacks, presumably filled with gold from the Camelot vaults. The blonde knight walked forwards until he was about five feet in front of them and then threw the bags to Khal, who caught one and opened it to inspect the contents. His hand came out with a fist fill of gold coins, Khal grinned in triumph and Arthur could practically feel the satisfaction coming off of him.

Arthur heard a whimper of pain come from behind him and twisted around to see that Merlin was coming around, she stirred feebly and it looked like she was trying to get up, but with her hands tied all she could manage was to raise her head. Her face was a patchwork of multicoloured bruises, cuts and was smeared with blood, her sapphire eyes were a bit unfocused and Arthur was concerned to see tears glistening in them.

"You have your gold, now send him over." Leon said in a steady voice, hand resting on the pummel of his sword, obviously ready for a fight.

"Very well, a deals a deal." Khal grinned, closing the bag of money and gesturing to the men surrounding Arthur. One moved over and pulled Arthur to his feet, untying the rope around his wrists and shoving him forwards. Arthur went over to join the Camelot side of the clearing, but then realized that something was wrong, Merlin hadn't joined him. He looked over to his servant who was still bound and on the wrong side of the clearing.

"Let her go too." he said, eyes meeting Khal`s dark ones with steady fury.

"How much is your little serving witch worth to you, prince?" Khal asked with a smirk.

"Surely that amount of gold was enough for both of us?" he replied.

"Well, I suppose there is a bit too much here for just you." said Khal thoughtfully, he strolled over to Merlin, pulling her up by the hair. He drew a sharp knife and before anyone could react he grabbed Merlin's hand and sliced off her little finger.

Merlin looked too shocked to do anything for a moment and then let out an ear piercing scream, she collapsed to the ground cradling her severed hand as Khal let go of her. The bandit leader tossed the finger over to Arthur, who watched in horror as it skittered towards him.

"Now I think we`re about even, we're done here." Khal turned and motioned for his men to leave, two of them picked up Merlin and then they were gone. Arthur started forward, furiously, wanting to tear apart the monster who now had Merlin, but Leon and the other knights held him back. "I'm sorry Arthur but there are too many of them, we wouldn't stand a damn chance." Leon hissed at him, he strained and there was true fear in his eyes, Arthur wanted to fight but he knew that Leon was right. He knew enough of Leon to know that he cared for Merlin too and wouldn't let anyone hurt her willingly.

"We need to get back to Camelot _now, _I'll get more gold and we are coming back for her, I don't care what it takes, I'm getting her back." growled Arthur and no one dared argue with him, the look in Arthur`s eyes promised danger.


	12. A disagreement of sorts

**A disagreement of sorts**

Uther Pendragon did not like waiting, he did not like it at all. As king he often had things served to him immediately and did not expect to have to really be patient with anything or anyone. The four knights had ridden out nearly four hours ago and should be back around now, but still they weren't here. When he had received the ransom note that Sir Leon had found at the site that they had been ambushed, he had immediately sent men to the vaults to collect the ransom gold. Arthur was his only son and heir to the throne - Uther could not afford to loose him, let alone to a group of unruly marauders.

Uther found himself pacing agitatedly in the great hall, he was beginning to grow concerned that something had gone wrong, that Arthur was dead or the transaction hadn't taken place smoothly. A thousand gold coins for Arthur's safe return, no more than four knights at Ivor`s glade at midday, those had been the terms described by the bandit's note. Although he may not show it very often, he did care for his son - he was all he had left of Egraine.

The doors to the great hall suddenly swung open, making the king start and glance up to see Arthur striding towards him. The prince was dressed only in his tunic and breeches, no armour and his ever present sword was gone too. Uther didn't like the thought of such fine royal craftsmanship being in the hands of common bandits. Arthur's face was bruised and bloodied and he could see bloody bandages bulging out from under the Camelot issue red shirt. His son looked angry and so tense that Uther could nearly feel it coming off of him in spiky tendrils.

"My son." Uther strode forward, making sure that his carefully honed demeanour of cool impassiveness was still in place. "What happened?" Arthur looked tired and strained, he took a deep breath before speaking.

"Father. . I . . we were on our way to deal with the bandit situation, we decided to stop and then we were ambushed, I was injured and I told the men to retreat, we were outnumbered." Uther nodded, if nothing else Arthur seemed to have inherited his sense of strategy, the king would have done the same thing in his place.

"Mer- I mean my servant helped me away from the battle but then we were surrounded. The leader - Khal took us captive." Arthur seemed to have tears shimmering in his eyes but he blinked them away.

"You weren't harmed at all?" asked Uther

"I sustained a few bruises and my shoulder will heal, but that's not important, I need gold."

"Whatever for?" Uther frowned, his son had gold enough himself for most things, why would he want more?

"For Merlin. It wont be too much but-"

"Your servant?" Uther asked incredulously, Arthur nodded.

"Arthur, I'm not paying good coin for the return of a servant, now I'm sure you need your rest and go see Gaius about your wound."

"But sire, Merlin is a good person and she saved my life, on more than one occasion." Arthur had a desperate look in his eyes but Uther just didn't understand it - Merlin was just a servant and from what he heard, an incompetent one too.

"No Arthur, I am **not** paying the bounty for a serving girl, and if your servant was half as good as you say, then she wouldn't always be getting herself into trouble like this." Arthur's face turned bright red with anger and his clenched fists were shaking.

"She didn't get herself into this! She was dragged along with me and then used as a plaything by a sadistic monster! Don't you _**dare **_say that its her fault!" Arthur was shaking with rage and Uther was surprised as to how much his son reminded him of himself. After Egraine had died, Uther had felt an all consuming rage, similar to the one seemed Arthur to be feeling now. Why did he care so much for a simple serving girl? There wasn't anything special about her that Uther could see, in fact, she seemed to be just a clumsy peasant girl.

But no matter how much Arthur reminded him of himself, Uther could not let his son speak to him in that way, he had to establish his dominance. "Arthur, I am your king and you will show me some respect." Uther`s voice was as cold and cutting as ice. "I am not paying for the return of some **stupid**, clumsy peasant girl, she is not worth the dirt on your boots, Arthur. You will have a new servant, a competent one this time and there will be no more of this."

Arthur's face went completely slack, he then took another step forward and slapped the king, hard across the face. There was a moment where the whole world seemed to freeze, but then all hell broke loose. "GUARDS!" Uther bellowed, several guards burst through the door, looking around for the danger. "Take the prince to his chambers and do **not **let him leave." The guards moved forward to grab Arthur by his arms, pulling him from the room, he struggled all of the way out, but his murderous gaze never left his father, that glare was full of pure hate and fury. It promised Uther vengeance.


	13. Fair warning

**Fair warning **

Sir Leon was in a dilemma, the likes of which he hadn't really ever needed to face before. The king had ordered him to have Arthur locked in his chambers, no visitors and he was not allowed to leave under any circumstances. Leon knew why Uther had done it, but he didn't agree with the reasons one little bit. As a knight, he had sworn to serve the king, and Leon of course did not take this vow lightly, but he wanted to save Merlin at the same time - thus the dilemma.

Whenever he tried to focus on anything else, Merlin's face flashed into his mind, first as how she normally was - cheeky, cheerful and cute and then, bruised, bloodied and battered as how he had last seen her. These two images played in his mind over and over and no matter how much he wanted to obey his king and do his duty - he could override the feeling that he was _breaking _the knights code by not helping Merlin. After all, part of his vow was to protect Camelot and all of its citizens, and although Merlin technically wasn't really a citizen, she had lived here long enough to count, surely?

He heard a yet another loud crash issue from Arthur's chambers where he was no doubt throwing anything he could and probably upturning the furniture too. Leon had seen Arthur's face when he had been dragged out of the court room, kicking and screaming, the look was utter pure, blank hatred. Although no one ever seemed to know it, Leon was actually quite observant.

He had been a knight in Camelot and had known Arthur long enough. to know that Uther and Arthur had a very difficult relationship. Arthur was a good man and tried to only do what he thought was right, and he was sure that the king deep down was the same but had to establish his authority over his son and the kingdom.

Suddenly the crashing stopped. Leon turned around the look at the door - he had expected Arthur to carry on well into the night but there was nothing. But no, not nothing, he heard a strangled cry issue from the chambers, at first he was concerned that Arthur had managed to hurt himself while destroying his room, but then he realized that Arthur was crying.

In all his years of service as a knight and knowing Arthur when they were children he had _never _heard Arthur cry. He guessed that it had been a principle that Uther had drilled into him, but to hear it now. . . It was this that made Leon's mind up. He quickly unlocked the door to Arthur's room and marched in, Arthur was sitting on the floor, head on his knees and shaking. Every stick of furniture in the room was in splintered pieces around him, clothes were strewn about like the remnants of a storm and the bed looked like it had been savaged by a lion.

"Arthur." Leon spoke softly, but Arthur's head still snapped up, his eyes were red rimmed and puffy, he quickly brushed the tears away and stood up.

"What do you want Leon?" Arthur asked in a tired, strained voice.

"I'm getting you out of here" Arthur looked at him in astonishment. "We're going to go get Merlin, no one deserves to die at the hands of someone like that, let alone Merlin."

"My father will not be happy about this, are you sure you want to risk your knighthood?" Arthur asked.

"Some things are more important than titles." Leon replied, meeting Arthur's hard gaze.

"Well what are we waiting for then?" Arthur grabbed his sword belt and strapped it to his hip. "Lets go." Both the prince and the knight left the room, quickly jogging away down the corridor. Leon led the way, he knew that at least two of the other knights would help their cause, so he headed straight for the knights collective quarters.

Sir Tommen and Sir Arian were both sitting at the table in what the knights called the Shift, it was where anyone off duty went to relax. Arian was a tall, red haired man with bulging muscles - Tommen was the exact opposite with dark curly hair, tawny eyes and was shorter and slight of build. But despite his size, Leon knew him to be the best bowman among all the knights. Arian looked up in surprise as the prince and he entered, standing hastily. "Leon, sire, what an unexpected pleasure." he said with his usual charm.

"We need your help and it will go against the kings orders to do what I ask of you, so I understand if you don't want to help but it is really an important matter." Arthur said.

Tommen was always the quicker minded of the two and usually the quietest too but now he spoke up, realization dawning in his tawny eyes. "You're going to try to rescue Merlin."

Arian's eyes widened and he reached for his goblet, drained it and said. "I'm with you, she always helped me if I needed it, Tommen?"

Tommen stood too and nodded. "Merlin saved my life once, before she even knew my name, so I'll return the favour."

"We should hurry though, the warning bells could be going any second." Arthur warned, Tommen and Arian quickly followed Leon and Arthur out of the Shift and up towards the stables. Luckily for them there were four horses that were only just being unsaddled from the evenings patrol. After a few hasty words with a surprised stable boy, they all mounted up and were soon galloping out of the main gate, just as the warning bells sounded.


	14. Ghosts

**Ghosts**

Merlin guessed that she must have blacked out soon after her finger was cut off, seeing as she was now somewhere else and she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there. She was now leaning against a tree, her hands were tied around the trunk of it and there was a cloth gag tied around her mouth. Merlin supposed the gag was so that she couldn't recite any spells. Khal knew her secret, he had seen her use magic, he had even called her a witch in front of Arthur, and yet the prat _still _hadn't caught on. She was hardly surprised by now though, she had even told the court of her magic in order to save Gwen and Arthur hadn't believed her.

Khal needn't have bothered gagging her however, she couldn't concentrate enough to form any spells, the excruciating pain from her severed finger, the aching from her broken arm and the burning from all of her bruises was enough to keep her mind fuzzy. She tried to focus enough to think of a spell that would unbind her or at least loosen the ropes off, but it just wouldn't work, her brain was engulfed in a haze of pain.

Merlin was rather confused and concerned as to why Khal had bothered to keep her. But the most important thing was that Arthur was safe. He was surely back in Camelot by now and probably being fussed over by Gwen and demandingly questioned by Uther, she was happy as long as he was safe. It wasn't just that she had to protect him as part of her destiny, it was that Arthur was important to her. He was kind, selfless, brave, and a good man, not to mention incredibly handsome, with shining golden hair and those sky blue eyes. Yes, she could deal with almost anything as long as he was alive and happy.

Almost as if to test that theory, a bucket of icy cold water was suddenly thrown over her head, she jerked forward, spluttering as the water soaked through her torn and bloody shirt. Khal was standing over her, grinning with an empty bucket in one hand and his axe in the other, she eyed it nervously. "Good morning, little bird." She frowned up at him, unable to reply because of the gag.

"I've got someone who'd like to meet you, little bird, and do try to be polite, he wont be as tolerant as I was." Merlin nearly snorted with laughter at this, Khal? Tolerant? That was a laugh. But she was curious as to who this mysterious visitor might be, so she nodded. "Good." said Khal, satisfied with her apparent obedience. He crouched down next to her and cut through the ropes holding her to the tree, he tugged her to her feet and produced a set of manacles, clicking them securely around her wrists. Merlin scowled, there was no way she was going to get out of these without magic, which was at the moment, impossible.

Khal half dragged, half led Merlin through the trees, back towards the shamble of dirty tents, there were people milling around by the fire that was still roaring in the middle of the makeshift square. There was a new tent here that she hadn't noticed before, Merlin could have sworn that none of the tents had been dark purple, but here it was. Khal pushed her through the tent flap, it sealed behind her and she was trapped in the surprisingly dark tent. No light filtered through the tent material and it was lit by a few candles, she saw that it was just as well furnished as Khal`s tent had been, but maybe a bit more modestly.

A man was standing with his back facing her at a small table at the back of the tent where shining metal instruments sat, spinning and humming. "Sit if you like, you must be in pain." the man's voice was oddly familiar, but still he didn't turn, his head bowed over the metal instruments. Merlin stayed where she was, what was it about the people around here, acting all nice and polite at first and then turning violent. This man hadn't done anything to her yet, but she still wasn't inclined to trust him if he was referred to by Khal as intolerant.

"I'm sorry about Khal, he can get a little carried away when he thinks he's in charge, he does like to play the leader even if he knows he isn't." Merlin blinked, she had assumed that Khal was the leader of these bandits but from what he was saying, that wasn't the case. This whole situation was making Merlin jittery, the man was still not looking at her, but she still felt as though he was staring at her. "Its always the ones in the background who do the real work, isn't it?" he said with a slight smile to his voice. "But then I suppose you would know all about that wouldn't you Merlin?"

The man turned to face her and she gasped, he was slightly taller, less stooped and his face was not burnished by any disfiguring scars. But that thick, fair hair, piercing eyes and eerie stare were unmistakable. It was Edwin Muirden. He smiled at her and it was enough to make her shiver, Edwin was dead, she had killed him, how could this be? "I think its time for a little payback, don't you?"


	15. Spitting image

**Spitting image**

Merlin stood and stared at Muirden. She remembered killing him, she remembered using her magic to throw the axe straight back in the sorcerer's face - it couldn't be him. "How pale you are Merlin, almost as pale as my dear brother, when I found him dead." Muirden`s face was a mask of cold anger and shadowy humour. "My name is Jareth, we were twins you know, identical until the day that Edwin tried to rescue our parents from the flames, I was forced to watch as my family burned." Jareth walked slowly towards Merlin, who was now very scared, her eyes wide.

"We went our separate ways that day, my brother was a good person, but he was too obsessed with vengeance on Uther, I just wanted to get on with my life. But then you killed him, you who had magic, you who he offered to befriend but then you killed him. Edwin and I were close, I _**felt**_ it when he died, and now I understand his need for vengeance." Jareth reached up and touched her cheek, she tried to flinch back, but he dug his nails in and she cried out. "And what a perfect opportunity this was, make money off of Uther`s brat **and **get my revenge on my brother's killer."

Jareth squeezed her face, pulling it closer and loosened off the gag around her mouth. "Have you got anything to say to _that _Merlin?" he hissed with dark humour.

"Your brother tried to kill an innocent old man, he tried to kill the king and then he tried to kill me, its not my fault what happened to your parents and your brother forced me to kill him." Muirden`s eyes flashed bright gold and he muttered a spell "_Machucar" _Merlin screamed as she felt unbearable agony pierce her body, it was like being burnt alive, frozen in icy water and trampled by horses all at the same time. It was only Muirden`s grip around her waist that kept her upright, he had a crazy, dark, satisfied smile on his face as he watched the pain he was causing her.

"I took a long time, considering how I could be rid of you, Merlin, and I finally decided that seeing as you work for the Pendragon`s, how you _help _them and how you care for them - I should give you a Pendragons punishment." Jareth pulled her to her feet, practically supporting all of her weight, she felt too weak to stand with the pain and shock. His lips were suddenly right by her ear, his cool breath made her shiver. "You're going to _**burn." **_he hissed in her ear.

"No!" Merlin's sapphire eyes widened in fear, she couldn't fight him off and she was deathly afraid, as a secret witch living in Camelot, she had always been afraid of fire but now she was in a state of blind panic.

Merlin acted instinctively, she didn't consciously decide to form a spell, so it worked and Muirden was sent flying across the tent, crashing into the table of brass whirring instruments. Merlin turned and fled through the tent flap, ripping it open with chained hands. But she was stopped in her tracks, as a strong hand gripped her by the hair and jerked her to a stop.

"Not so fast, little bird." chuckled Khal, in his spare hand he held a lit torch. _Oh gods no. _Merlin dug in her heels as Khal dragged her towards the pyre stake in the centre of the camp, it was only just glowing with black ashes at the moment now, presumably doused so that Merlin could be tied to the stake in the middle. There were logs and a large pile of kindling piled around the bottom of the stake.

Jareth emerged from the tent behind them and called out to the bandits milling around the edge of the camp. "Come one, come all to see a traitor burn!" he shouted with malicious glee evident in his voice. Khal wrapped a length of rope around Merlin's chest, tying her tightly to the pyre.

"Please." Merlin felt hot tears spill from her eyes and heard her voice crack as she pleaded. "Please don't do this."

"But Merlin, my parents didn't want to die either, neither did my brother or any of the hundreds who died at your master's hands." Jareth smile was full of smug satisfaction as he threw the torch down onto the pile of kindling, it went up in a roar of flames.

And so did Merlin.


	16. Burn

**And we're gunna let it burn **

Unfortunately for the bandits, even though they had blindfolded him on the way from the camp to the ransom point, Arthur had noted the direction they were going. They had reached Ivor`s glade less than ten minutes ago and the prince knew that they were close to the bandit's camp now, he ordered the knights to dismount and they made their way from that point on foot. Arthur had been worried that he might not be able to find the camp again, but his job was made a lot easier by the towering column of black smoke issuing fifty feat into the air - you couldn't really miss it.

There was a huge pyre - not unlike the ones sorcerers were burned on in Camelot, that was the source of all the smoke. Suddenly the flames flew outwards in a flash of bright golden light, all the tents around, quickly catching alight. He could hear yelling and screams, the smoke was stinging his eyes and the flickering flames were distorting the world around him, playing games with his mind. When he, Leon, Arian and Tommen drew closer, they realized that it wasn't just one fire now - the whole camp was suddenly ablaze. Burning tents were already being reduced to ashes, people were fleeing the flames and at the centre of it all, where the fire burned hottest, Arthur saw a figure.

Arthur ran forward, sword drawn, but all of the bandits in the camp were now fleeing, too preoccupied to worry about a few intruders. He shielded his face from the immense heat coming off of the fire, he squinted through watering eyes and saw that the figure was Merlin. She was in the centre of a pyre. Those bastards were burning her. Arthur roared and ran forwards, Merlin's screams tore through the air as the flames licked against her bare legs and her back. Arthur had seen many people burnt before, living in Camelot it was nearly unavoidable and being Uther`s son made it mandatory, but he had never been so horrified as he was now.

There was one bandit who had not fled the flames, he was standing there, chanting in the language of the old religion that was banned in Camelot. His robes were swirling around him and the fierce flames gave his features a glowing, demonic appearance, but Arthur was still pretty sure that it was Edwin Muirden. He knew that he should be dead and in that moment, Arthur quickly rectified it by running the sorcerer through from behind. Muirden gasped, stiffened and turned to claw onto Arthur's shirt, a savage smile plastered over his face. "You're . . . .l .late."

The flames of the pyre suddenly leapt even higher, and Merlin's screams reached a new pitch. then died out as she seemed to pass out. Seemingly in slow motion, the ropes holding Merlin up gave way and she was falling, straight into the heart of the flames. "MERLIN!" Arthur roared, but he couldn't seem to be able to move, he was frozen to the spot as he watched her fall. But then someone was darting forward and that someone caught her before the flames engulfed her. Arthur saw a bright scarlet cloak and saw the fair haired head of Sir Leon, dragging Merlin from the fire.

Arthur found that he could move again, and sprinted towards where Leon was gently laying Merlin down on the charred grass.

He looked at Merlin, cradled in Leon's arms, her breathing was very shallow, all visible skin was covered in soot and what he could see underneath was a very nasty sight. The smell of charred, cooked flesh was making him feel sick. "Merlin? Can you hear me?" Arthur barely recognised the choked, scared whisper that came out of his mouth.

He almost died of relief when Merlin shifted slightly and her sapphire eyes cracked open an inch, they looked glassy and dazed. A choking, rasping sound came out of Merlin's cracked lips, it took Arthur a moment to realize that she was trying to speak. The prince quickly glanced around, looking for a source of water, suddenly a flask was shoved under his nose and he looked up to see Sir Tommen, looking grim and holding out his water skin. Arthur nodded his thanks and took the flask, gently pressing it to Merlin's lips.

Merlin swallowed convulsively as drank only a few sips before letting her head fall back again. Worried, Arthur tried to feed her more water but she shook her head and her eyes flickered open further, not seeming to fully focus on anything. "M`ngl" Merlin muttered, Arthur frowned.

"What did you say, Merlin?"

"My n`angel" Merlin's head lolled back and she passed out.


	17. All I hope

**All I hope**

The ride back to Camelot was no more than a few hours but it felt like years to Arthur, each thud of his horse's hooves seemed to be one jolt that would take Merlin away from him forever. She was on Leon's horse, head resting on the older knight's chest, Arthur had wanted to take her himself but had not been able to hold her onto the horse with his injured arm. Leon had a firm yet gentle grip on her as they all rode hard through the forests, Arthur couldn't seem to be able to bring himself to look at Merlin however. He feared that if he looked directly at her, she would have stopped breathing, that she would be dead - not knowing was better than the utter certainty of death.

Arthur had to hold on, he had to believe that there was still hope, he had to cling to the slightest chance that Merlin would survive - that she would be fine. He didn't know what he would do if she died, and he didn't know if he could live with the guilt of knowing that it was his fault. He should have never left Merlin alone with those murderous, sadistic _bastards, _he had been too naïve to realize that Uther would never pay the ransom of a `mere servant.` The conversation that he had had with his father after Merlin was poisoned rung clear as crystal in his head.

"_Because her life is worthless?!"_

"_Because its worth __**less **__than yours!" _

And then Uther`s angered words from this very morning - _"She is not worth the dirt on your boots, Arthur." _The words made his blood boil, his father didn't value those in his service, or anyone who wasn't a noble. Arthur knew that however he grew up, however he ruled as a future king - he would **never **behave in such a way as his father did. He would respect everyone equally and treat the people of Camelot with fairness and kindness.

He slowed his horse as they rode into the main courtyard of Camelot castle, quickly dismounting and one handed, helped Leon to get Merlin off of the horse. Her skin was hot and sticky to the touch, but Arthur still didn't look at her, instead he focused on helping Leon carry the injured servant to Gaius's chambers.

Sir Tommen pushed the door to the physician's chambers open, revealing the usual mess of bottles, herbs, potions and books stacked and teetering all over the place. Arthur and Leon carried the worrying light form of Merlin through the doorway and gently deposited her on the patients bed. "Gaius!" Arthur called - no answer. "GAIUS!" he yelled, desperation in his voice now - silence. "Tommen, go find Gaius, get him here **now!" **he ordered, the young knight nodded grimly and ran from the room.

"Arthur, listen to me, we need to do something now." Leon's voice was calm and oddly restrained as he stared down his prince. "We should at least clean the wounds until Gaius gets here." Arthur nodded dumbly and took the wet cloth that Leon handed him, finally forcing himself to examine Merlin properly. She was pale, under the covering of soot and her breathing was almost invisible - just a weak fluttering of her chest. As Arthur wiped away the soot and blood that masked her skin, he began to feel ill - Merlin's legs and lower body were a patchwork of blistered, angry red burns, gone black in places.

The fire had even reached her hands which were swollen and badly burned too, it was only her upper body and face that were burn free. The scar on Merlin's face was still there but puckered and not life threatening, her broken arm seemed to be mostly healed - this confused Arthur, a broken arm should take weeks to heal - it had barely been two days. Arthur reached over and gently began to wash away the blood from his friend's face, she moaned and stirred feebly in her unconsciousness. "Shh, its ok Merlin." Arthur said soothingly, running a hand through her long, tangled raven hair.

At that moment, Sir Tommen rushed back in, but he was alone. "Where's Gaius?!" Arthur asked, confused and angry.

"I'm sorry sire, Gaius is in another village - caring for the victims of a plague outbreak - he wont be back for at least two days." Tommen`s eyes gleamed with pity as he looked at the prince, caring for his servant. "The king has ordered your arrests." Arthur paled - he couldn't leave Merlin now.

But Leon caught on faster than Arthur did. "Arrest_**s**_."

"All three of you - Leon, the prince and . . .Merlin too." 


	18. For pity's sake

**For pity's sake**

It took a group of ten guards to take Arthur down, dragging him away from Merlin, literally kicking and screaming the whole way down to the dungeon. They threw him into the cell alongside Leon, who was only a bit calmer than Arthur, the door was slammed and locked behind him. Arthur yelled with anger and rattled at the bars of the cell door, then slammed his fist into the wall in frustration - not even caring as he heard a loud crack as his fist met stone. The prince knew that his knuckle was probably broken but he couldn't bring himself to care, all that he could think of was how much Merlin needed his help and how _**very**_ much he wanted to kill his father right now

Arthur paced furiously, running his hand through his messy blonde hair and cursing Uther under his breath with every atrocity he could think of. Leon was sitting in the corner of the cell, stripped of his sword and armour and looking desperately angry but more resigned to his fate than Arthur was. After about ten laps of the small, straw strewn cell, he heard footsteps echoing down the hall just outside of the cell, they were drawing closer. A moment later, two guards came into view, one of which was Sir Tommen, they were dragging the limp form of Merlin - and spearheading the miniature procession was Uther. Arthur stopped his pacing and went to the door, ready to take Merlin from the guards, but to his horror, she was placed in the cell opposite them.

"What are you doing!? She needs help!" Arthur shouted, eyes glistening dangerously as he stared down his father. Tommen lay Merlin down as gently as he could on the pile of straw at the back of the cell, trying to put her in a position in which she wouldn't be in too much pain, flashing an apologetic look at Arthur, he locked the cell door behind him.

"You deliberately disobeyed my orders, Arthur, for a servant you risk your life and the lives of some of our best knights! What is this obsession you have with this one serving girl?" Uther raged, glaring fiercely at Arthur through the cell bars. "Is she really worth risking your life for, risking the very kingdom itself?!"

"Yes! Yes she is worth it, she is worth it all and more!" roared Arthur, without thought or hesitation, he blushed slightly as Uther looked at him in surprise. "I mean . . .all of the citizens of Camelot. .they should all be equally valued, no matter of rank or occupation. . .what would the kingdom be worth if there was no one in it. . .everyone should be counted and respected equally." Arthur realized that he was trembling with rage and emotions that he couldn't quite name. "Have she not been punished enough? Keep me in the dungeons for a month, a year! I don't care! Just let her go, make sure she gets medical attention - she hasn't done anything wrong, she doesn't deserve to die like this." Arthur's eyes shone with pleading tears as he gazed at his father. "Please."

Uther seemed to be conflicted for a moment, his eyes seeming to understand something, what it was Arthur wasn't quite sure. "I can see that this means a lot to you Arthur." Uther said slowly, eyes on the floor, there was a long pause. "I will get a physician to care for her, but she will remain in the dungeons for the remainder of the month, however long she may live." With that the king turned on his heel and strode from the dungeons, leaving Arthur half relieved that Merlin would be cared for and half furious at his father's stubborn cruelty.

"That's probably the best you're going to get Arthur, I'd be glad." murmured Leon from behind him, Arthur felt his tense shoulders droop and he slid onto the floor, resting his aching head against the cool stone wall. He needed Merlin to live, he hoped that the physician would come soon and that they would be anywhere near as good as Gaius - no, scratch that, he wished Gaius was here. Merlin would probably need a comforting face, she had been through so much, she had been beaten, raped, abused and burned and didn't deserve any of it.

Arthur was pulled from his thoughts by a quiet groan from across the hall, he leapt up and clutched at the bars with white knuckled fingers. "Merlin?" There was a weak, rasping chuckle.

"Wh`t d`ya w`nt prt?"


	19. Healing hands

**Healing hands **

Merlin came to slowly, she was vaguely aware of voices - loud voices, shouting unintelligible things, but Merlin was just thankful that she was awake at all really. Her last memory was of scorching heat, choking smoke and immense, all consuming agony. . . so why was she now in clean, cool air and laying unbound on something cold and hard? Her pain hazed mind couldn't seem to be able to put together any logical string of events that would lead to her being cool and safe except perhaps an angel swooping down and saving her from the fire. But yes, now that she thought of it, there _had _seemed to have been an angel - a blonde haired, _sobbing _angel.

Now that Merlin had things somewhat ordered in her head, she turned her attention to her number two priority - pain. Or more accurately utter agony. Her legs and lower body felt like they had been bathed in acid and were burning with all of hell's fury. It took all that she had to not scream out from the torture of it, she managed to contain it to a quiet moan of pain but the shouting voices continued as if she hadn't made any sound, for that Merlin was glad, she didn't want to have to deal with the reason for her being burnt just yet. The only logical assumption that Merlin could come up with was that her magic had been discovered and Uther had ordered her execution.

She had imagined what it would feel like to burn before but she hadn't even come close to how painful and horrible it **really **was. But what hurt the most was that Arthur hadn't stopped it - she had always thought that he had cared for her, but it seemed that he didn't care enough to stop her being burnt. Merlin felt it like a stab to her heart that Arthur didn't care, she had always known deep down that he didn't feel like she did towards him, but really feeling it hurt _so much_, she moaned again. And like a twisted, mutilated dream of hope and hatred - there was a reply. "Merlin?"

Arthur's voice was so familiar that it hurt, she decided that responding to her own crazed imaginings was probably a bad thing, but she was bored and it was better than nothing. "What do you want prat?" Merlin knew that her voice was scratchy and nearly unintelligible but she heard a shuffling from nearby and decided that she might as well open her eyes. At first, her eyes saw nothing but blackness but they soon adjusted to the light - she was in a cell, one of the Camelot dungeon cells if she wasn't mistaken. Across the hall was what seemed to be Arthur, Camelot red shirt and tousled, dirty blonde hair all covered in smoke dust and dirt - he had a twig in his hair, it made Merlin laugh wearily.

"How do you feel Merlin?" the not-Arthur asked, concern plastered all over his face, clutching the bars of his cell, why was she imagining Arthur in a cell? And if he was to be in a cell why wasn't he in hers? Ready to comfort or torment her, depending on how kind her subconscious was feeling. Merlin felt that she may as well be honest with the not-Arthur, why not?

"Like I'm burning from the inside out." A twisted smile pulled up the corners of her scarred lips. "But then you'd know all about it."

"What?" the not-Arthur frowned, looking worried, she chuckled at herself - why was she indulging her own fantasies like this?

"You're in my head, you should know what I feel shouldn't you? I'm cruel to myself, I shouldn't talk to the voices in my head, really it can't be healthy or a good habit to get into." Merlin heard herself chuckle again, a broken sound that cracked the air like breaking ice. "You're just here to hurt me again, you didnt stop me getting hurt before so why would now be any different?"

"Merlin! I'm real, I'm here and I'm not going to hurt you! You're safe, there's a physician coming to help you." Merlin was impressed with how earnest her impression of Arthur managed to sound, there was even a broken sob to accompany it. And as if by magic there were footsteps from nearby and suddenly the door to her cell was opening and an older woman walked in. She was about fifty with long greying brown hair tied back and kind old hazel eyes, she had a lined, experienced face that was grim as she looked down at Merlin. The young witch was slightly confused as to why she was now imagining new faces - if she was to think up a physician then why not Gaius? Why a stranger?

The woman crouched down next to the injured servant and began unpacking things from a brown leather satchel, she kept her eyes on Merlin as she worked. "What is your name, girl?" she asked, her voice was rough but had a kindness to it.

"Merlin." the young witch croaked in reply, shifting slightly so that she was now on her back, she let out a cry of pain as a fresh wave of pain went crashing through her body.

"Shh, lay still." the woman soothed, pressing a cool hand to Merlin's feverish brow, it might have been Merlin's imagination but the woman's eyes seemed to glow gold as she stroked back the girl's hair. Merlin felt herself drifting off into a comforting oblivion and her last thought was of how nice it was to be free of the pain, even if just for a little while.


	20. A woman of wisdom

**A woman of wisdom **

Arthur's heart was in shattered, bloody, twisted broken pieces upon the cell floor. It felt like he was bleeding out onto the cold stone, his life slowly trickling through his clutching fingers that were drawing bloody half moons on the skin of his chest. Merlin was delusional - she didn't know that he was there, that he was real, she was suffering and he couldn't even offer her any comfort. The woman he loved thought that he was a figment of her own imagination, that he had come to torment her and those broken chuckles that had come from her lips - they weren't her - it felt like his Merlin was gone.

The prince was at least glad of the fact that Merlin was now unconscious and in the safe hands of a physician, he didn't know the woman, but it looked like she knew what she was doing. Arthur watched as the woman carefully examined Merlin, washing away patches of blood on the less serious wounds and currently avoiding the burns on her legs, hands and lower torso. The salve that the physician applied to the cuts on Merlin's face and arms was green and Arthur could smell it from his cell - it was bitter and strong.

"Will she be alright?" Arthur asked as the woman turned her attention to the blistered, red, black and burned skin on Merlin's lower body. The healer took a bottle from her leather bag and poured the contents onto a cloth, soaking the material with a sweet smelling liquid, she then proceeded to carefully yet thoroughly apply the stuff to Merlin's burned skin.

"It will take at least a month or so for the burns to heal but the cuts and bruises should only take about a week - her broken arm has healed well and shouldn't need resetting. But from what I can tell her mind may be damaged, trauma can kill just as easily as any injury." The woman paused in her ministrations for a moment and looked over to Arthur, her hazel eyes serious. "Are you ready to accept what this might mean? Can you be the guide that she needs to recover? Because if you are not, then I suggest that you leave her alone for now, sire."

Arthur stared at the woman in a mixture of shock, confusion and guilt - he wanted to help Merlin recover but there was a question that he didn't know the answer to - was he strong enough to do it? He was only just coming to accept his feelings towards her and he didn't know all of what she had gone through. But for Merlin he was willing to try so he answered with the only thing that made any sense. "I will try, I will help her recover - whatever it takes."

The healer woman nodded and went back her work, after finishing applying the medicine to Merlin, she carefully wrapped her legs, hands and stomach with clean bandages. "You show her great compassion, sire, I'm glad that she has inspired such loyalty." Arthur blinked - why did this woman care about any feelings between him and Merlin?

"Who are you?" the prince asked, wrapping his hands loosely around the bars of his cell, trying to see her reaction.

"My name is Iyri, sire." she replied, not looking at him as she wrapped Merlin's blistered fingers, keeping her gaze on her work. Arthur wasn't really satisfied with her short answer, but from her clipped tone, it seemed that was all he was going to get out of her. Arthur relaxed his grip on the bars and slumped back, so that he was sitting with his head rested against the stone wall again. The pain from his broken knuckles began to make itself known, and he grimaced and winced in pain as he saw the blood oozing from the cracked skin. Punching a wall had not been a good idea, but it didn't really matter now, he closed his eyes and decided that he may as well get some much needed sleep until Merlin woke up.

Suddenly there was a squeal of hinges as the door to his cell was unlocked, he opened his eyes to see a guard letting Iyri into the cell, medical bag in hand. "If I may examine your hand sire?" she asked, holding out a worn hand to him, he sighed and gingerly placed his hand in hers, allowing her to salve and bandage it with well practiced hands. He winced occasionally but otherwise didn't complain, she nodded to herself and handed Arthur a vial of clear liquid that smelled faintly of liquorice. "For the pain." she told him and he grimaced and swallowed it in one gulp, the pain seemed to dull almost immediately and he began to feel drowsy - not uncommon for a painkilling tonic. As he floated off into sleep however, he heard Iyri sigh and say in a sad, quiet voice "Thank you for looking after them."

**Hi guys! *waves shyly* im sorry if this is dragging on a bit but i hope youre enjoying it. please review bacuse they are really helpful! and to my most loyal reviewer - no Merlin isnt pregnant - Iyri is thanking the gods of the old religion for looking after Merlin and Arthur (stupid i know but meh) **


	21. Do you think im crazy?

**Do you think I'm crazy? **

Merlin was awake, or sort of awake - or something, she wasn't sure really, she just knew that her eyes were open and she was back in the cell. Her abused body still hurt, but it was as if the pain was numbed, which was a nice change, her legs, lower torso and hands here all covered in bandages that were covered in something strong smelling. - Feverfew and Lavender if she wasn't mistaken. So she hadn't imagined the healer - or if she had, her delusions were getting more consistent. It was nice to know that some part of her might be trying to comfort her with images of help and safety.

The young witch pushed herself into a sitting position with more than a little stiffness in her aching joints, she was now alone in her cell, but the Arthur apparition was still in the cell across from her - apparently fast asleep. She then noticed that Arthur wasn't alone in his cell, Leon appeared to be sitting at the back, with his head resting on his knees - why would Leon be here too? Merlin didn't really want to start questioning her own fantasies - that would probably just end up making her head hurt more than it already did. The apparently-Leon suddenly jerked his head up, looking around the cell in a dishevelled manner, he then spotted Merlin looking over at him and an odd expression flashed across his face - concern? But not where she would usually expect it to be.

"Merlin?" Leon called, voice mirroring the concern on his face, but again, there was something off about it - what was she missing? Merlin manoeuvred herself over to the wall by the cell door with a few winces as her tender legs scraped against the stone floor, she sighed as she rested her head against the cool stone wall - it felt good to have a support.

"Who else were you expecting?" she replied, closing her eyes, she could hear how strained, tired and pained her voice sounded.

"I'm real, you know - you are safe." Leon's words startled her and she chuckled brokenly without even opening her eyes.

"You think I'm crazy don't you? You think that all of this has gone to poor little Merlin's head and its driven her mad." Merlin's laughter continued, raising in pitch as she spoke. "Well you know what? Maybe it has! Maybe it did drive me out of my mind - I don't deserve to be in there any more, its not pretty. I've been sane a long time now and change is good." She rubbed a hand over her tightly closed eyes, gripping her hair, and tugging on it, curling into a protective ball, as her broken laughter turned to sobs. Splintered memories danced through her mind. She began to scream.

_**Arthur yelling in pain as he went down with a crossbow bolt in his arm. **_

_**Khal`s grinning face as he beat her into the ground. **_

_**Khal tugging off her clothes, handing roving over her body without restraint. **_

_**A flash of steel and agony as her severed finger dropped to the leaves.**_

_**Absolute agony as she writhed in an inescapable hell at Muirden`s feet. **_

_**The fire! The flames burning her all over, choking black smoke and no hope of escape. . .**_

Suddenly she felt hands on her, shaking her shoulders frantically, her eyes flew open, tears flowing down her face in dirty streams. Sapphire eyes focused on Arthur's face through the haze of tears, he looked terrified and he pulled her into a crushing embrace. This must be a trick - just another trick. But Arthur's too tight hold was so comforting, so warm and so welcome that she clung back onto him for dear life. "Its ok Merlin, its going to be okay, you're safe, its over." his babble went on like that but it was still comforting and Merlin relaxed into his embrace.

"Are you really here?" she whispered into his ear, she felt him tense and then he replied in a warm voice.

"Of course Merlin - of course I` really here." Suddenly Arthur's lips were on hers and they were warm and sweet, the kiss was short, but perfect.

"Stay with me?" Merlin asked in a small voice, looking up into Arthur's sky blue eyes with fragile hope.

"Always." came the reply that Merlin needed, she leant forward and captured Arthur's lips in another hot, crazy sweet kiss, this kiss went on longer and was deeper. Merlin suddenly found that she didn't care if she was imagining this or not - this fantasy was better than reality and she would take it a thousand times over. She thought that she deserved to be happy - even if just for a little while.

**Hi guys - im SO sorry about the really long wait, im really busy atm, but i hope you enjoyed it. Merthur slash is soon i promise. Love to ya`ll. Please read and review! (im trying to get to 50 reviews on one story - it would make my week) NEARLY FINISHED BUT NOT QUITE YET BTW.  
**


	22. My all

**My all - Miss everything**

It had been just over two months since Merlin and Arthur had returned to Camelot. True to his word, Uther had kept both Arthur and Merlin in their cells for the remainder of the month, although he had let Leon out after only four days, that was mainly due to the fact that without Arthur or Leon to lead them - the knights weren't doing their job's very well. Arthur resented his father for punishing Merlin for something that wasn't even her fault, but he was just glad that she was alive. He remembered awakening to her screams as she lay, curled up in a ball, shaking and with her eyes screwed tight shut - he had yelled to the guard to let him help her. Thankfully Sir Arian had been assigned as their guard, and he had let Arthur go to comfort Merlin.

From that point on, Arthur had remained in Merlin's cell as a comfort but also to stop her from hurting herself further. Arthur remembered the time when she had began scratching at her bandaged legs, tearing the bandages away and producing long, bloody welts on her burnt skin. It had taken several weeks, but eventually Merlin began to slowly trust that Arthur was real, with each little talk she seemed to get better - less afraid. Even after both he and Merlin had been released, the prince continued to talk to her, comfort her and convince her to eat.

Of course both he and Gaius - once he returned - had insisted that Merlin not work. But somehow, only two days after being released from the cells, Arthur had found Merlin cleaning his room, despite her still shaky and burnt legs. After several very long and heated arguments including a lot of "Merlin you idiot"s and "Insufferable Prats" Arthur had given up. No matter what he and Gaius had said - Arthur had found Merlin going about her usual duties everyday - if a little bit slower and more stiffly.

That brought Arthur to now - it was late evening and he was waiting for Merlin to arrive with his dinner, he was used to having to wait a bit longer than usual, what with Merlin's only recently healed burns, bruises and cuts. The prince was sitting, slumped at his desk, with his head resting on his hand, it had been a long day of training and boring meetings. He heard the door open and didn't look even look up as he heard Merlin's distinctive footsteps make their way across the room.

"Merlin! Finally, what-" Arthur stopped mid-sentence and felt his jaw drop as he saw Merlin, or rather what Merlin was wearing. It was a dress. Over the past few weeks Merlin had been wearing dresses as they were apparently easier to wear with her burnt legs, but _this_ \- this was different. It consisted of a scarlet skirt and a tight black corset laced across her chest, pushing up Merlin's suddenly, very noticeable cleavage up to a point that, Arthur felt a familiar tightness in his breeches all of a sudden. Merlin's ebony hair was hanging in wavy ringlets around her pale, porcelain face and her big blue eyes were twinkling suggestively from underneath dark eyelashes - she had never looked so beautiful.

"Something wrong sire?" Merlin asked innocently, arching an eyebrow, a mischievous smile playing on the corners of her full red lips. Arthur opened his mouth, closed it again and then swallowed, in an attempt to moisten his suddenly bone dry throat.

"I. . . where did you get _that_?" Arthur asked, not quite being able to bring himself to avert his gaze from Merlin's suddenly quite visible bosom. He felt slightly bad for staring so shamelessly at her, like she was some common tavern wench, but she seemed to enjoy it, and took a few steps closer. She was now close enough to touch.

"Its just one of Morgana`s old dresses." Merlin said casually, but with something akin to triumph playing beneath her sapphire eyes. "She thought I might like it - she also thought that _you _might like it." Merlin took another step forward, around the desk, her knees were now touching his. "Was she right?"

Arthur couldn't take it any longer, he grabbed Merlin abruptly by the waist and rose up from his chair to wrap his arms around her waist. He leaned down, until his lips were just brushing her ear and whispered. "Yes, I like it _**very**_ much." Merlin's lips met Arthur's with liquid heat and he kissed her back with all the passion that he had been holding back for so long. When he withdrew, his lips were tingling and he was feeling very warm all over, Merlin's lips were damp and she ran her tongue over them, apparently savoring the taste of Arthur.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Merlin?" Arthur asked, concerned, the girl had only recently recovered from pretty serious trauma - she had to be feeling weaker.

"Yes. . . I think I need this, its something I've wanted for so long now. . .I think now is the time - now is our time." Merlin stared up into Arthur's eyes and in hers, he saw the love in them, the devotion and the need. That was what decided Arthur, he claimed her mouth in another kiss, this one deeper and more intense than the last, his tongue swirling to meet hers. Merlin's hands were running through his hair and his moved from her waist to her bum and her legs were suddenly wrapping themselves around his hips. Arthur somehow found that his legs were hitting the back of his bed, and he sat down on the end of it, Merlin wrapped around him and still kissing with just as much passion as before.

Arthur withdrew from the kiss, breathing heavily and smiled down at Merlin before leaning back and pulling off his shirt, revealing his tanned, muscled torso, he laughed slightly as Merlin's eyes fixed on his gleaming abs. Arthur's fingers moved to the laces at the front of her corset and he fumblingly untied them and pulled the dress down, revealing Merlin's creamy white breasts and pert nipples, he groaned as he felt his cock stiffen at the sight.

The prince leant forwards and began to place warm kisses across her chest, moving his way slowly down until he reached her nipples, he took one into his mouth and sucked gently on it. Merlin moaned and arched her back, eyes fluttering closed in ecstasy, Arthur took this as encouragement and sucked a bit harder, digging his teeth in slightly, she gasped in pleasure. "Oh, Arthur!"

Merlin dug her nails into the back of his neck, and somehow Arthur found that he was falling backwards onto the bed, pulling Merlin with him, he turned so that she was now underneath him. Their lips met once more and Arthur couldn't help feeling a thrill of joy - it was happening, he was finally going to make love to the only woman that he had ever loved. All thought seemed to leave him however, as Merlin began to fumble at the laces of his breeches, she tugged them down, exposing his impressive and already mostly stiffened member. Arthur gasped as some of the pressure was finally released, in turn, the prince pulled off the rest of Merlin's dress and gasped at what he saw. Scars.

There was a large burn mark on her chest, just below her left breast, although he could tell that it was at least a few months old, there were numerous pale scars on her arms, legs and spreading round to her back, that he was pretty sure had not come from her time in the bandit's camp. And then there was the still red, soft looking skin all along her legs from where she had been burnt. How could someone so small and innocent have so many scars?

Merlin - if she noticed Arthur's preoccupation, didn't react to it and moved her slender hands to his stiff cock, he choked out a gasp as her fingers squeezed him, his eyes glazing over. Merlin guided Arthur to her wet entrance, breathing heavily, he felt his tip touch her nether lips and then he was sliding forwards and . . ._**oh yes!**_

"Fuck you feel so good Merlin." Arthur moaned in her ear, she giggled breathily in response and Arthur began to move it. He began with slow steady thrusts that had both him and Merlin panting and sweating, a small moan escaped Merlin's lips. The blonde sped up his pace and soon they were both groaning, pleasure was coursing through Arthur - he had been with women before of course, but never as good as this.

Arthur felt a pressure building ad he knew that he would come soon, he sped up his thrusts even more, going harder and deeper. Merlin let out a soft scream as Arthur hit the spot inside of her, again and again, until he finally came, squirting his seed into Merlin - consummating their love. Arthur's world went blindingly hot for a moment that seemed too long to be real, and then he was wrapping his arms around Merlin and they were curled up on his sheets. Both naked, sweaty and in pure bliss, Merlin fell asleep in Arthur's comforting arms - they would unite the land of Albion alright.

_**So sorry about the long wait - last chapter done! hope you all enjoyed it and hope i got the sex bit right - my first one and all! Please read and review!And to my most recent reviewer - yes i will - do you like kinky or regular?  
**_


End file.
